Saturday 31 May 2014 19.05 EDT
First published on Saturday 31 May 2014 19.05 EDT

Let's leave Lord Justice Moses, first chairman of Ipso (the new press regulator), to his doomed role as latest "barman in the last-chance saloon" (in Hacked Off's characteristically winsome opinion). His voyage from the majesty of the appeal court to safe haven must cross an inevitable sea of troubles. But if the sacred concept "independence" can only be guaranteed by royal charter, it might be worth the hacked-offers pausing for a moment to focus on the BBC (whose freedom surely matters just as much to us all).

The BBC is looking for a new trust chairman, a supreme regulator/leader. He or she will be "independently appointed" amid all the flummery Whitehall can command. But 10 days ago, David Cameron was insisting that a woman should get the job. And this week he's plugging the charms of Seb Coe, former Tory MP and present Tory champion in the Lords – a natural successor to Lord Patten, former chairman of the Conservative party.

Is this, pray, independence by any remote stretch of royal chartered imagination? Of course not. It's interference as usual, letting civil servants ring up to recruit likely lads and lasses, constructing a shortlist to best advantage and leaking like a sieve. Does Lord Coe know anything much about broadcasting? Or regulatory best practice? He was a great runner and masterminded a great Olympics. But Cameron's tame trustee through election time? Forget Hacked Off: try Switched Off instead.